Pet rats are cuddly little creatures that need lots of attention. On the other hand, sometimes they need a little place to hide out and be themselves, to conduct rat business, conspire which antique piece to destroy next, or where to put their newest stash. This is where a Rat House or more commonly called a Rattie Clubhouse can come in handy.

Steps

Method1

1

Become a pack rat. Gather as many boxes as you can get a hold of, from cereal boxes to packages. All of these are needed for making a good clubhouse.

2

Design your hangout. Fool around with a few ideas by stacking the boxes in different places, decide what you like best.

Make sure you plan according to your rat's mobility. For instance, if you have an older rat, you might want to stick with a single story clubhouse or a two story house with wide bridges and wide ramps.

3

Once you know what you want your clubhouse to look like, cut some doors and secret passageways, even some windows. Please be careful when cutting holes, as slipping can hurt quite badly. Make sure that there is a way to get into every box.

4

Using care to keep the holes lined up, glue the boxes together.

Allow the boxes to dry before continuing.

Be sure not to nudge the boxes out of place while drying.

5

Add ramps, ladders, and bridges.

Ramps can be made out of thick, clean sticks or pieces of wood. (Make sure there are no splinters!)

Ladders can be made out of thick rope, or parrot ladders available at nearly any pet store.

Bridges can be made out of thick rope, pieces of wood, or anything else that is strong and sturdy.

Just be sure to stabilize these to avoid injury to your rats. You can take a half filled water bottle to test out bridges. Press lightly on ramps and ladders, just about how much you think your rat would pull.

6

Add graffiti to the outside of the clubhouse! Personalize it in every way you can think of! Non toxic markers are the best way.

This step is optional.

Method2

Ratty Town

1

Collect a lot of cardboard material. This can be anything from cereal and tissue boxes to toilet paper roles to plain flat squares.

2

Place down a single sheet of cardboard or cut and flatten a box. If you are afraid your rats will run off of this board, build a small fence. An alternative to a fence is to place your "buildings" around the edge to block any escape.

3

Design "buildings" by cutting, gluing, and stacking boxes. Glue these buildings to the flat board.

Be sure the glue is non-toxic.

If you want to get fancy, place cardboard rectangles down to be "roads" to each building.

4

Decorate. As long as the materials you are using are non-toxic and your rats cannot chew them up, you can be as creative as you want.